Willard Lowndes

Willard Lowndes (5 April 1834-14 July 1899) was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1876 to 1880 and a Confederate States Army colonel during the American Civil War.

Biography
Willard Lowndes was born in rural Fluvanna County, Virginia on 5 April 1834 to a family of farmers. Lowndes worked on the family farm until the American Civil War broke out, upon which he raised a Confederate States Army volunteer regiment from Fluvanna County. He served as the regiment's colonel at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, and he continued to lead it in the Eastern Theatre until the war's end; the regiment was mostly kept behind the front lines to guard railroads and small towns from Union attacks. After the war, Lowndes was paroled and returned to Fluvanna a local hero. In 1876, with the Reconstruction restrictions crumbling, Lowndes and several other former Confederates entered into American politics with the Democratic Party. Lowndes served in the House of Delegates from 1876 to 1880, when he fell ill with a fever. He decided to remain in Richmond after his term expired, establishing a fresh produce market in Shockoe Bottom. Lowndes died of heat stroke in 1899 at the age of 65.